Caught red-handed: The 'Candy striped hermit crab' is a new species from the Caribbean

Caught red-handed: The 'Candy striped hermit crab' is a new species from the Caribbean
Date: January 26, 2017




This is a photograph of live female of the new species Pylopaguropsis
mollymullerae sp. n. stretching out from gastropod shell.
Credit: Rafael Lemaitre and Ellen Muller; CC-BY 4.0


Recent underwater photographs and video obtained using scuba equipment by underwater photographer Ellen Muller at dive sites in the National Marine Park of the southern Caribbean island of Bonaire revealed the presence of a small, secretive and brightly colored red-striped hermit crab that proved to represent a species new to science. The new few-millimeter species is described in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The color pattern reminded author Dr. Rafael Lemaitre, Smithsonian Institution, USA, of traditional candy cane, and thus he assigned the common name "Candy striped hermit crab." Meanwhile, the scientific name of the new species is Pylopaguropsis mollymullerae after Ellen Muller's young granddaughter Molly Muller. The underwater photographer believes that the honor would "inspire her to continue the tradition of protecting the amazing and fragile diversity of marine life in Bonaire."

The unusual hermit crab was first photographed inadvertently alongside a "flaming reef lobster," while observing invertebrates that aggregate in crevices under a large coral ledge. Subsequently, more hermit crabs were photographed in various crevices shared with moray eels such as the "broad banded moray," "spotted moray," and "green moray." When permits were obtained from the Government of the Island Territory of Bonaire, a few specimens were collected and brought for study to the Smithsonian Institution. The formal description was then prepared for publication and specimens were deposited in the collections of the National Museum of Natural History, as required by scientific rules when naming new species.

The shape of the right, or major, pincer of this new hermit crab species is remarkable and unique with its shape and massive size when compared to the body. The underside of the claw of this pincer is deeply excavated, scoop-like. The function of the pincer and claw, however, is at present unknown, although a video shows that it is used by the hermit crab to push itself while crawling along the bottom.

More:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170126083612.htm